Still life of various objects arranged in a box. wooden box, cork, soap dish, flange, automotive part, found objects

Untitled (Oval and Crescent), 2003


4"x5" format, gelatin-silver print, 41.2 x 37.2 cm.  (id#777)

Still life of various objects arranged in a box. plastic, rubber, black, water pistol, douche, ventilator fan, paint residue, ball, bicycle accessories, sprinkler head, found objects

Arrangement in Black, 2002


4"x5" format, gelatin-silver print, 31.1 x 47.1 cm.  (id#751)

Still life of various objects arranged in a box. white objects, bathtub drain plug, dried paint residue, meringue, found objects

Untitled (Three White Objects), 2003


4"x5" format, gelatin-silver print, 28.5 x 47.1 cm.  (id#773)

Still life of deflated balloons arranged in a box. balloons, wooden box, spray paint

Untitled (Black Balloons), 2003


4"x5" format, gelatin-silver print, 24.1 x 47.2 cm.  (id#769)

Still life of various objects arranged in a box. wooden spoon, croquet ball, wooden blocks, sandpaper, dowel, found objects

Untitled (Wooden Spoon and Ball), 2003


4"x5" format, gelatin-silver print, 24.0 x 47.1 cm.  (id#759)

Still life of various objects arranged in a box. twine, string, ice cube tray, bowl, metal box lid, found objects

Untitled (Arrangement with Twine, Ice Tray), 2003


4"x5" format, gelatin-silver print, 44.2 x 37.1 cm.  (id#775) 

Still life of various objects arranged in a box. diptych, wooden chest, mirror, hemispherical, hourglass, sandglass, twine, string, ax head, sculpture, spiral, toy duck, found objects

Diptych (Small Chest), 2003


4"x5" format, gelatin-silver print, 27.1 x 47.1 cm.  (id#783) 

Still life of various objects arranged in a box. diptych, wooden chest, mirror, hemispherical, hourglass, sandglass, twine, string, toy duck, found objects

Untitled (Diptych, Left Panel, with Hemispherical Mirror, Toy Duck Head, and Sandglass), 2003


4"x5" format, gelatin-silver print, 43.1 x 37.1 cm.  (id#786) 

Still life of various objects arranged in a box. diptych, wooden chest, twine, string, ax head, sculpture, spiral, found objects

Untitled (Diptych, Right Panel, with Axe Head and Spiral Sculpture), 2003


4"x5" format, gelatin-silver print, 43.1 x 37.4 cm.  (id#788)

Still life of various objects arranged in a barbecue pan. found objects, beeswax, polystyrene, metal railway spike, desiccated grapefruit

Untitled (Arrangement with Disc and Spike), 2003


4"x5" format, gelatin-silver print, 27.1 x 47.2 cm.  (id#765)

Still life of various objects arranged in a box. found objects, croquet mallet head, terracotta sailboat, painted plaster bear head

Untitled (Arrangement with Boat & Bear Head), 2003


4"x5" format, gelatin-silver print, 26.9.x.47.1 cm.  (id#757) 

Still life of various objects arranged in an artist's paint box. found objects, bicycle horn, polystyrene, rubber darts, ball, racquet handle, plastic palm trees, plastic fruit, candle, fussball figure, viking helmet horn

Paint Box, 2003


4"x5" format, gelatin-silver print, 36.2 x 47.2 cm.  (id#753) 

Still life various objects in three wooden boxes. found objects, plastic ring, wooden block, wire mesh, dried acrylic artist's paint, spiral sculpture, floor tile, foam rubber, doll head, hand puppet, croquet ball, gong base

Triptych (Ring, Spiral, Puppet), 2003


4"x5" format, gelatin-silver print, 30.9 x 47.1 cm.  (id#790) 

Still life of various objects arranged in a wooden box, and part of a triptych. plastic ring, wooden block, wire mesh, dried acrylic artist's paint

Untitled (Triptych, Left Panel with Ring and Paint Tube Remnant), 2003


4"x5" format, gelatin-silver print, 47.0 x 24.1 cm.  (id#798) 

Still life of various objects arranged in a wooden box, and part of a triptych. spiral sculpture, floor tile, foam rubber, doll head

Untitled (Triptych, Central Panel with Spiral Sculpture and Doll Head), 2003


4"x5" format, gelatin-silver print, 47.1 x 23.8 cm.  (id#792) 

Still life of various objects arranged in a wooden box, and part of a triptych. hand puppet, croquet ball, gong base

Untitled (Triptych, Right Panel with Puppet and Wooden Ball), 2003


4"x5" format, gelatin-silver print, 47.0 x 23.8 cm.  (id#800) 

Still life of various objects arranged in a box. found objects, toy balloon, Christmas tree ball, driftwood, dried plant trunk, cardboard box, planter

Landscape with Interior, 2003


4"x5" format, gelatin-silver print, 35.4 x 47.1 cm.  (id#771)

For me an unusual composition in that, instead of being iconic-static-hieratic-symbolic (my stock in trade), it verges on being narrative - suggesting a landscape scene with a house and a tree under a sky, all contained in a space like a miniature theatre. (I had, in the back of my mind, things like doll houses, the shadow boxes constructed by stage designers in opera and theatre, and the puppet theatres used by stop-motion animation artists like Jan Svankmajer.)

Still life of various objects arranged in an old valise. found objects, tennis ball, bird feeder, string, acrylic medium, pinwheel, bowl, suitcase

Untitled (Arrangement in Valigia), 2003


4"x5" format, gelatin-silver print, 32.6 x 47.2 cm.  (id#759)

Still life of various small objects arranged in an ice cube tray. found objects, plastic bullets, plastic heart, plastic onion, ball, keyring, plastic birds, baby doll, cherry bomb, decahedron dice

Untitled (Tray with Small Objects, 2003


4"x5" format, gelatin-silver print, 24.6.x.47.1 cm.  (id#755)

Still life of wooden-model dinosaur bones arranged within a picture frame. found objects, wooden bones, dinosaur model

Ossuary II (Dinosaur Bones), 2003


4"x5" format, gelatin-silver print, 46.6 x 37.2 cm.  (id#763)

Still life of various objects arranged in a box. found objects, wooden block, cardboard light box, frosted paper

Untitled (Frosty Screen on Pedestal), 2003


4"x5" format, gelatin-silver print, 46.8 x 27.2 cm.  (id#751) 

Still life of various objects arranged in a three-compartmented box. found objects, watering can spout, bandage tape, silicone, golf ball, bolt, ice cream scoop, mirror, wire coil

Untitled (Three Compartments with Golf Ball), 2008


Digital exposure, archival pigment print, 25.5 x 47.7 cm. @300ppi  (id#855)


For me a transitional image in that it is my first studio still-life made using a digital back on a view camera instead of 4"x5" film. More importantly, it is the first in which, to overcome the limited definition of a single frame of the digital back, I photographed the subject in sections and then reassembled them seamlessly with the computer.


The digital back, mounted in place of film on a view camera, allows me to shift the back and take three separate exposures without moving the camera (the position of the lens, to be precise) and thus altering the perspective.


The occasional diptychs or triptychs that I had already made on film with the view camera (intending to present them as pairs or triads) can be seen as precursors of this technique of photographing in sections. With digital technology it became possible to unite them anyway if I wished.

Still life of various objects arranged in a three-compartmented box. found objects, watering can spout, bandage tape, silicone, golf ball, bolt, ice cream scoop, mirror, wire coil

Untitled (Three Compartments with Golf Ball, Left Panel), 2008


Digital exposure (id#855L)

Still life of various objects arranged in a three-compartmented box. found objects, watering can spout, bandage tape, silicone, golf ball, bolt, ice cream scoop, mirror, wire coil

Untitled (Three Compartments with Golf Ball, Central Panel), 2008


Digital exposure (id#855C)

Still life of various objects arranged in a three-compartmented box. found objects, watering can spout, bandage tape, silicone, golf ball, bolt, ice cream scoop, mirror, wire coil

Untitled (Three Compartments with Golf Ball, Right Panel), 2008


Digital exposure (id#855R) 

View Camera Still Life, 2002-2008


Grouped chronologically (somewhat arbitrarily, as what I do evolves very slowly), these images were made with the 4"x5" view camera using film in all but one case, in which a digital back was used.  This last one, the "Untitled (Three Compartments with Golf Ball)" is a transitional still life in two ways:  it was the first one made with digital means instead of analog, and it was the first one made by photographing the subject in sections and then reassembling them with the computer to make an extra-large image file.  


This procedure developed out of what I had already done with a few subjects using the view camera - photographing the subject in sections to create a multi-paneled photograph, with each panel printed separately, and with the possibility also of combining the digital scans of the separate panels to create an oversized, seamless image.  Two examples are right here in this section, the "Diptych (Chest)" and Triptych (Ring, Spiral, Puppet)".  Another, the "Diptych (Arrangement with Beeswax IV)", is in the next section, "Prime Arrangements 1997-2001".


These images exist in limited editions of fifteen signed and numbered prints of any size and any type of print, whether traditional analog (silver-gelatin or baryte prints) or digital (pigment prints) in nearly all cases.  (The sole exception here is the last and most recent image, "Three Compartments with Golf Ball", id#855, which is limited to ten signed and numbered prints of any size or type.)  Of the editions limited to fifteen, they consist principally of gelatin-silver prints (as they were made when I still routinely made traditional prints and had not yet adopted the use of a digital pigment printer), sized mainly to a format of 16" x 20" or 11" x 14".  In most cases, I have not completed the edition in gelatin-silver, but I have begun to do this with many images by making digital pigment prints in A3Plus, not to exceed a total of fifteen.


For an artist's statement regarding these images, see the last menu item in this section, "The Persistence of Memory - Still-Life Essay".


© 2014 Allen Schill.  All rights reserved.  No part of this document may be reproduced or used without prior written permission from the author.  Anyone is welcome to link to it, or to quote brief passages, but I would like to be notified.

© Copyright Allen Schill

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